2 Officers Fired In Jail Probe

Two Orange County corrections officers linked to a drug-smuggling and credit-card fraud corruption investigation at the county jail last year have been fired, officials said Wednesday.

Nearly nine months after authorities arrested three officers and put five more on administrative paid leave, Aldridge Randolph and Shawn Johnson received their termination notices late Tuesday.

Officers Tracey Allen, 40, and Sean Roper, 33, received written reprimands for failure to report favor requests by inmates and have returned to duty, jail records show. Officer Isidro Iglesias, 42, who was punished for not reporting requests "to smuggle drugs into the jail," appealed his written reprimand and it was taken off his record. The case of Officer Irvin George, 41, still is pending.

Two other former officers were convicted on federal drug-smuggling charges. Rick Brandenberger, 52, is serving a 14-month sentence, while Jorge "El Viejo" Rodriguez, 54, received a three-year sentence.

Johnson, 33, who was arrested Nov. 3 by the Orange County Sheriff's Office on credit-card and grand-theft charges, was terminated because county investigators concluded that he "fraternized" with a convicted scam artist. His state criminal charges, however, were dismissed in court earlier this year.

An internal report says Marcus Evans, who is serving 25 years in state prison for identity theft and credit-card fraud, paid an $800 insurance bill for Johnson and made at least three calls to Johnson's cell phone to ask for jail-related favors.

Similarly, jail officials said, Randolph, 32, was terminated for agreeing to pass personal messages from Evans to people outside, though the messages were never delivered. An internal report also says Randolph, a five-year veteran, failed to report to his supervisors that Evans had asked him to run a credit-card scheme through Randolph's private business.

Corrections Chief Timothy Ryan, in a statement, said the serious allegations of impropriety justified the length of the inquiries.

"These investigations have . . . taken an extensive period of time due to the number of public agencies involved, the number of witnesses, and the requirement and expectation to ensure the integrity of the investigations and due process," Ryan said.